The invention disclosed herein is generally related to suspension and shock absorption systems for motorcycles. More particularly, this invention is directed to motorcycles having a one-sided suspension system for the front wheel of the motorcycle, such as is disclosed in the applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 4,526,249, issued July 2, 1985 and entitled Front Suspension System for a Motorcycle.
Many contemporary motorcycles include swing-arm rear suspension systems, in which the rear wheel is journalled to a swing arm, or U-shaped fork, which is hinged to the chassis of the motorcycle and which extends rearwardly from the chassis to the hub of the rear wheel.
In the above-referenced patent, there is disclosed a novel suspension for the front wheel of a motorcycle. The suspension is one-sided, in the sense that the front wheel is journalled to an axle shaft which extends in a cantilevered arrangement from a kingpin positioned along one side of the wheel. The kingpin is attached to upper and lower control arms which are hinged to the motorcycle chassis. In particular, the lower control arm is arcuately shaped and extends forwardly from the chassis around one side of the front wheel to the hub and kingpin assembly.
The present invention is directed to the problem of longitudinal pitching in motorcycle performance. As is well known, all motorcycles have a tendency to dive, or pitch forwardly and downwardly, during hard breaking of the front wheel. Complex anti-pitching mechanisms have been developed for motorcycles having conventional fork-tube front-end suspensions. Such mechanisms typically operate to increase the compression pressure in the front fork shock tubes during braking.
The reverse effect, upward pitching during hard acceleration of the motorcycle, is also well known. There have not been previously known mechanisms for reducing this type of pitching without impairing other aspects of the motorcycle performance.
Accordingly, it is the object and purpose of the present invention to provide a mechanism for reducing pitching in a motorcycle.
More particularly, it is the object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for reducing pitching in a motorcycle having a swing arm rear suspension and a one-sided parallelogram front suspension.